to the Sou iis Falmouth barn blinks its glassy side like a giant eye . BY SC O TT SI M O NS fery few architects live in houses of if their own design. Without the limiV tations imposed by the client, the ichitect has to confront all the "ghosts of rchitects past" and decide what he or she ally stands for. For Phil Kaplan, a talented young archistin Falmouth, and his wife, Masey, the pportunity came in 1998. The Kaplans ought a small house on a two-acre lot with sidea of subdividing and building a new ouse of their own design on the "back lot." he property was ideally suited for their rowing family, with the back lot 300 feet if the road in a nicely secluded, wooded tea. Living in the small house in the front, eir goal was to finish construction the foliwing year, in time for the arrival of their wad child. Kaplan wanted to design a 3,200-square)t house "that looked like an old barn rently renovated." To accomplish this, he ied a palette of traditional materials and ms in a decidedly contemporary way. he roof form is a simple gable, evoking the aditional barn forms of New England. He
started with this simple form and then transformed it, stretching it out to create a covered porch and carport, like a shed on the side of an old barn. He clad the house with a metal roof, rough-sawn board-andbatten siding, and a stone veneer on the foundation, all traditional materials from old bams. He then made them modern by reversing the batten and board so the batten was behind and composing the stone veneer as a panel below the living room window instead of running it all the way around the house. He used double-hung windows but grouped them into an expanse of glass in the
Years before designing his house, Kaplan had salvaged the structural timbers from a client's vintage 1800s barn, hoping to use them someday.
living room, transforming this traditional window type to expand the feeling of space inside the house. What I like most about this house is the way Kaplan designed the living room. It is a wonderful space filled with light, connected to its wooded setting, and well planned as the center of family life. Moreover, there's a history here; he must have been thinking about this space for a long time. Years before designing this house, Kaplan had salvaged the structural timbers from a client's vintage 1800s barn, hoping to use them someday. By recycling the timbers to support the roof over the main living space, he has created a shaking combination of old and new. The roughness and massive
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